Murders in N.Y. borough traced to drug traffic war

By
With Analysis From Monitor Correspondents Around The world,
Edited By Susan Garland /
February 4, 1982

New York

The borough of Queens here is fast becoming a ''mini Miami'' - not in terms of climate or geography, but because of drugs.

So says the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which is concerned about the drug war that has jolted the largely residential, heavily ethnic borough, Monitor correspondent Ward Morehouse III reports. The DEA says the string of murders over the past week are the result of a ''turf war'' between Colombian nationals for control of the cocaine racket in Queens.

While the violence has increased recently, the problem of cocaine traffic in Queens is not new. Since 1979 a joint task force of New York city and state police and the DEA has been combating drug dealing there.